Andy Carroll is set to join French club Bordeaux, which has slid down the pyramid following bankruptcy.
The former Liverpool and Newcastle forward spent the season in Ligue 2 with Amiens, having left Reading. He was a regular for the French side, but he hasn’t played much this season, and a move to Bordeaux appears to be in the cards, according to L’Equipe.
John Williams persuaded Carroll to relocate across the English Channel while he was sporting director at Amiens, and he is now attempting to bring him to Bordeaux, who are currently in the fourth division of French football. Due to financial constraints, they have been relegated to National 2.
Bordeaux declared bankruptcy earlier this summer, just days after being relegated to France’s third tier, and buyout talks with FSG fell through. The National Directorate of Management Control removed them from Ligue 2 owing to financial difficulties, but they have now slipped even deeper.
In a statement, the club stated, “It’s a difficult decision that anticipates an inevitable consequence of the restructuring process underway.” The club has abandoned its professional status, which it has held since 1937, and dissolved its famed training academy. They also erected a state-of-the-art 42,000-seater stadium in 2015 at a cost of well over £150million.
Carroll will try to help resurrect the fortunes of a team that previously included Zinedine Zidane and won the Ligue 1 title in 2009 under Laurent Blanc.
The former England frontman, who has nine caps for his country, was once a £35 million player when Liverpool decided to sign him from Newcastle in 2011. Carroll enjoyed an impressive start to life in the Premier League, but failed to replicate that form at Anfield.
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